When it comes to digital marketing and social media marketing, most startup entrepreneurs sometimes get overwhelmed and confused. They might not know where to start or they aren't sure whether the things they are doing are positively impacting their business. Too many businesses just launch into social without a solid strategy and that can cause frustration and limit results.
In this episode of the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, Dawn and Traci talk about a simplified framework for your social media strategy and the 4 components you must include in that. Using social for marketing your business can be wildly lucrative if done right. So grab a pen & paper and be ready to take notes on this episode… you'll want to be sure you're hitting all 4 components in your business.
Let's discuss each of the 4 components to this framework:
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Understand your main business objectives.
This is actually the most important yet highly overlooked element for us entrepreneurs. This should always be the first thing you think of before even beginning to go about the tactical stuff. What's the point of posting all those times? What's the point of your lead capture page? What are you trying to accomplish?
What we are hearing from new clients or people who are just starting their businesses is they have so many ideas of how to go about the tactical things for social media marketing. For example, they would say that they know they need a lead capture page, they know they have to start posting on social media so many times a day and stuff like that. But what they really need to do first is pull back from tactical stuff and figure out what their main business objective really is. If they just copy strategies from other businesses, it might not work for them the same way because the business objective might be different from their own.
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Know who your target audience is.
You have to know who you are marketing to. Who is your avatar? Who are you speaking to? Who is your ideal prospect? Someone who runs a brick-and-mortar business will have a different target audience compared to someone who sells info products online. You have to tailor your strategies to fit the specific audience you intend to reach.
A lot of people understand the concept of knowing their target audience, but then when they try to apply it, they usually have a very broad spectrum and they end up failing to draw in their avatar. You have to narrow down who your audience is because if you're talking to everybody, you're talking to nobody. Segmentation and tailoring your campaigns will make your results so much more impactful.
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Understand your social content strategy.
You need to be able to create and share valuable content. What are you going to be putting out into the interwebs? Will your content have an impact on the person consuming it? In 2016 and moving forward, your content strategy is incredibly important. You have to make sure that your content mix is valuable to your target audience.
If you're not creating content, you can't become a thought leader in your niche. And if you're not a thought leader, it's hard to be a leader in your marketplace. Most of us think we don't have it in us to become a thought leader or an expert. But the truth is, we all have the capacity become that in our own space. In order for people to see and decide that you're an expert, you just have to give them information that's going to help them. You have to demonstrate that you have confidence in that area so that people will believe you are the exact person to listen to. Then they are more likely to hire you, buy your products, and take you up on your services and solutions.
Also, you might be thinking that you don't have the right to be called an expert because it's not your own original idea, method, course, or whatever. But if you invested the time and energy into learning and mastering that thing, you are entitled to be called an expert. After all, who aren't you to teach that stuff?!
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Have a plan to measure your strategy.
Measurement is actually a critical component in your social media strategy. You need to have something in place to measure your success. Are you hitting your targets? Are you hitting your business objectives? Are you getting the kind of engagements you are looking for?
Every single platform has tools and analytics, so there's no reason why you can't measure. Now you are even able to measure your ROI. Measuring will allow you to know where you are hitting the sweet spot, and where you are having a hard time. It goes back to what your business objectives are and how you're going to use it to measure your efforts. Otherwise, how will you be able to change if you don't know what you were going for in the first place?
So basically, you take these 4 components, then you rinse and repeat every time. Having this framework will guide you, no matter how long you've been at it. After all, if you don't know where you're going, you'll never know if you've reached the end, right?
If you feel you need help with any of these 4 components, we want to encourage you to reach out to us. We do a couple of complementary business diagnostic sessions every month where we take a look at your business and we help look for areas where you can be more effective in your marketing. If you are interested, fill out our form at www.HappyHourHangouts.com/coaching.
